There was a feast of Welsh last week as competitors at the Urdd Eisteddfod came together to celebrate their Welsh identity—young people from all parts of Wales: learners and first-language speakers. And what united them was confidence—confidence in the Welsh language and confidence in their Welsh identity. I think that confidence is crucial for the future of the Welsh language, and that is why I disagree with the direction of travel suggested by your statement today.

Yes, we need to celebrate, promote, and indeed much of what is mentioned in the statement are things that Plaid Cymru have secured through a budgetary agreement—£2 million for Mudiad Meithrin and the investment in the National Centre for Learning Welsh—but also we must develop the rights of Welsh speakers, to give status and to provide greater confidence. That is an important part of the campaign to create 1 million Welsh speakers. The work has commenced and it needs to be developed, and along with that, we need to invest in campaigns to promote the Welsh language. We need to invest in developing Welsh-medium education, so that all children develop skills in both of our national languages, and we need to invest to support communities where the Welsh language is the language of daily communication. All of those priorities, brought together, will lead to 1 million Welsh speakers. Dropping one element, namely weakening rights in order to fund another element, isn’t an ambitious strategy and it isn’t likely to reach its aims. So, given the success of the Welsh language standards to date, why are you supporting an attempt to weaken, to dilute and to deny the rights of the people of Wales to the Welsh language? Because that is the thrust of your statement today.

In launching the White Paper, your predecessor had hoped that the proposals would bring about consensus, but since then we have seen that consensus destroyed and the unanimous support given to the current Welsh language Measure by the Members of this Parliament in 2011 disappearing, and the threat coming in the wake of a piece of legislation on the Welsh language that, in reality, would take us back to the Wales of the Conservatives in 1993, rather than the confident Wales of 2050 and the 1 million Welsh speakers.

So, I would like to know, therefore, how much support there is among Welsh speakers to these proposals to dilute rights. In the public consultation that was held last year, only 77—so, I'm answering your question to a certain extent here—only 77 of the 504 responses supported the proposal to replace the commissioner with a commission, which is 15 per cent of responses. There is a major question mark, therefore, as to whether there is any real support for these proposals, never mind any justification for the preparation of a Bill.

Your statement announces your intention to appoint a new commissioner, an appointment for seven years under the Welsh language Measure. You have praised the positive impact of standards. I believe that one positive impact emerging from standards is the creation of a Welsh-speaking workforce across sectors and creating Welsh-speaking workplaces. So, it's difficult to understand why you want to lose the momentum by not allowing the new commissioner to continue with that work of placing further standards. Standards on the water companies are on your desk, the housing associations are still awaiting standards, and, indeed, you could pass Orders tomorrow to add important organisations to sets of regulations that have already been approved—organisations such as Qualifications Wales, the Welsh Revenue Authority, the future generations commissioner, Health Education and Improvement Wales, and so on. May I suggest that you confirm your commitment to standards by bringing Orders forward to this Assembly at the earliest possible opportunity?

Maintaining the credibility of the standards and the regime that provides rights for the Welsh language is crucial, and you say that you won’t row back from the standards or the independence of the regulatory role of any new body, but your proposals for a Welsh language commission will mean that the Welsh Government will impose standards; the Welsh Government would appoint the members of the commission; the Welsh Government would set the budget; the Welsh Government would approve the strategic plan; and the Welsh Government would have the power to direct the new organisation. Is that your definition of ‘independent’? It isn’t my definition.

I will conclude with one further comment. In terms of developing the Welsh language in the private sector, this Assembly agreed last year that we should extend language standards to the private sector. Today, you are talking about convincing business leaders to use the Welsh language and that the commission should lead on that. The Welsh Language Board tried to persuade diligently for 15 years. How do you think you will convince large businesses with this carrot that you mentioned, even though the businesses themselves state that they would respond only to enforcement?